Senator evicted from council house

The Municipality of Gwanda has moved to evict Matabeleland South senator Joyce Ndlovu from a council house she has been occupying for over three decades.

Senator Ndlovu was employed by the Municipality as an Estates Officer for over thirty years and was allocated the council house as part of her benefits while working for the Municipality. In the 2013 elections, Ndlovu was elected to be one of the six senators for Matabeleland South under the Welshman Ncube led MDC leading to her resigning from the council's employment.

According to the latest Full Council minutes of the Municipality, council unanimously agreed to accept a recommendation by the Health and Housing Committee that Senator Ndlovu be evicted from the house following her election to senate and subsequent resignation from council employment. Presenting the report from the Health and Housing Committee, committee chairperson Councillor Thulani Moyo highlighted that the Municipality is currently faced with a serious shortage of accommodation for its employees and so needed to recover all council staff houses occupied by non council staff members to house the council staff.

In the same wake, the council also resolved not to renew lease agreements to tenants occupying the BBR Houses which council is renting from the Bulawayo Beitbridge Railway Company and allocate the houses to council members of staff. The lease agreements which all expire at the end of December this year mean that the sitting tenants have less than 60 days in which to find alternative accommodation. Some of the tenants have been occupying the houses for close to 15 years now.

Early this year, the Municipality was forced to withdraw legal proceedings to evict former Mayor Lionel De Necker from a council house he was leased when he was elected Mayor in 2008. In a related incident, late last year council was directed by Local Government Minister Ignatious Chombo to sale a house in Senondo High Density Suburb to Minister Abednico Ncube for $5000. Ncube had was leased out the council house by the Municipality when he was elected Member of Parliament for Gwanda in 2005.